The leaders of the three economic development agencies discuss regionalism and its importance to Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.

Q. Regionalism sounds like a great theory. But if you're an ordinary person in some locality, in Weston or Westchester or Lake Worth, what's in it for you? How does the average person win here?

Pelton: Depends how you define regional. In my mind, regionalism is about an economy, and an economy is larger than a neighborhood. Our region is an economy. We all participate in that economy. We are interdependent and I think very reliant on the success of each county. It's not about jurisdictional boundaries. It's about where the economic opportunity flows.

Tarlton: Larry's right. When you look at having a business or being in business, your economic engine as a business isn't restricted specifically to your little community, to Weston, or to Miami Lakes or to Lake Worth. The economic opportunity for you is this huge area that we live in our Tri-County regionThe organic growth component is really the one that allows companies in a small geographic area to continue to expandand they obviously need to branch out and extend their economic engine within their own company to Broward and then into Palm Beach and vise versa.

Nero: Let me relate to that person in Westchester. Let's just say that we work together and we're vying for a company to locate in Miami-Dade and, oops, that company decides that they are going to locate in Broward. They've decided to locate in Broward because they want to have access to the workforce in Broward and in Miami-Dade and they want to use both our airports. And they decided that we made the pitch so well that this region is viable that they are going to be here as opposed to Atlanta or Nashville or Houston. That person in Westchester may not work for that company but they may be working for a company that now is supplying goods and services to that company In the long-run, that economic opportunity for that person in Westchester, to get a better job or to make sure that his job stays in this area, would be directly benefited by virtue of that fact that the economic pie now for South Florida just got larger

Q. In early June, you guys held a regional economic summit and agreed to put together a marketing plan for South Florida. What's been the follow-up to that meeting? What is the status of that marketing plan?

Tarlton: We haven't had the opportunity to really sit down to put together a marketing initiative with specific targets and specific results. But that is the next step. However, we are doing some things jointly whether that's the trip to Canada with [Gov. Jeb Bush] or other types of local initiatives, including Bio 2000, which was right after the economic summit

Nero: I can tell you our folks, business people that were there, were energized. I can't tell you the amount of calls that I got in support, people ready to go. So one of the results, maybe indirect, is that it's given us greater leeway, greater permission, to take it to the next step. Our board saying, `Let's go now and set up some dates for joint board meetings, let's talk about some joint missions. What are we doing on the marketing side?' So you've energized those people to the point where they understand it better, they are more enthusiastic about it than they were before. And I think it gives us a great window of opportunity to move this along the road.

Pelton: We had a meeting while we were in San Francisco to talk about [the joint marketing plan]. Again, it's just a matter of us getting on our schedule to sit down and talk about it. I've got my hands full right now, locally [with the Scripps Research Institute project], but I'm ready to jump in on the regional aspects of it. That conference really helped 1,100 people understand there is a justification for regional cooperation It also demonstrated, in my opinion, that the three of us together can mobilize an incredible resource. I have to give the governor a little bit of credit for that. But we helped create the platform

Q. Regionalism sounds great, but politics is local. How does the need to produce tangible results at the neighborhood level make the larger regional goal difficult to pursue?

Pelton: It's the nature of what we do because we all get public funding as well as private funding. I think the biggest challenge for a very strong regional front is going to be getting the public sector in the three counties to come along with us It may be a whole lot more difficult to unify school systems or city halls or county seats. That's where it becomes extraordinarily difficult to gain the perspective of regional cooperation

Nero: As we do this, whatever we determine has to be complementary to our local mission. I view the kinds of things we're going to do with Broward and Palm Beach as a part of my home-front activities. It's an add-on; it supplements what I'm already doing.

Q. So what we're talking about is regionalism in business, and regional solutions to large issues like transportation, but not unification of government and public sector.

Pelton: I think so there's no other region in the state of Florida that is larger than the region we represent. We're almost 6,000 square miles. Orlando, mid-Florida, has had a successful effort to put together a five-county region but that five-county region might fit in Palm Beach County. It's a whole lot easier to manage a smaller area than what we've got. There are all kinds of difficulties in trying to do it. We think we represent an industry that can be regional, that can work together, [that can] think like a region and promote ourselves as a region. We happen to be one of the fortunate endeavors that can work on a regional basis.

Tarlton: And I don't believe that we'll do it in a vacuum. There will be other organizations and initiatives. The school districts in Palm Beach and Broward counties attended a leadership program together at the University of Virginia. Those types of initiatives will continue to evolve. But we believe we probably have the best chance of picking up some low-hanging fruit and showing the results of that low-hanging fruit quickly

Nero: It will be evolutionary. You're right. It will be on the economic side But the realization is that the opportunity to do that is going to touch on education, housing and transportation. And soon it will become readily apparent to everyone that you're not going to be able to grow that economic pie to the level that everyone wants if our school systems don't work, if you can't get from Point A to Point B because our transportation systems aren't integrated, if we don't have the kind of affordable housing that we need.

So I think it will be in stages We can talk about incentives and so forth, but if the three counties can say, `You know what, we have the best public education system' companies would be lined up along I-95 and all three airports would certainly feel the load.

Q. The use of incentives was very divisive for a number of years. Do you foresee the opposite where the three counties would pool their incentive funds to back regional efforts?

Nero: I would say that's already happened. The Free Trade Area of the Americas effort is a perfect example. Broward County donated $50,000 to help support the FTAA effort. That's sort of the start of that. I do think that can happen. That's going to be something where the key to making that happen is to show that there is a beneficial result from that for the entities that are putting that up, that there is an economic impact that can be defined and measured. It's easier when it's on the border between Broward and Miami-Dade or Broward and Palm Beach The challenge will be when it's smack dab in the middle and we all know it's going to have an economic impact and we [have to show] or define [how that] person in Westchester or the folks in Weston or in West Palm are going to benefit by us collectively coming together. We did that with Scripps

Pelton: I think it's going to be less important, the incentives, as we become more regional When you talk about shifts in the worldwide economy, in a global economy, companies are going to locate and grow in regions that allow them to be competitive in the world marketplace. I think that means what we do is going to change. We're not business recruiters anymore. Our most important mission is to make our region competitive.

Q. But do you feel you can sell this effectively to the public sector?

Nero: I'm a former elected official and I understand the kind of issues that people in the public sector have to deal with. All of the elected officials want to have good jobs for their constituents, they want to have an increased tax base, a better quality of life and that comes with growing the economic pie. If we can show them there's a better way to do that by acting collectively as opposed to independently, I think we can make that case

Tarlton: We see examples of that already. The cooperation between the three county commissions when they get together on a six-month basis and discuss some of their specific initiatives and some of the common problems that are trying to be solved in all three counties, whether it's transportation or education, is at least a first step to removing those barriers that have been there for so long. But again it's just a first step.

Q. But, for example, Palm Beach is getting Scripps. Miami may get the FTAA headquarters. So if you're in Broward, what do you get? What's regionalism going to provide you?

Tarlton: I think we have the FTAA and I think we have Scripps [W]hen Scripps, or any other initiative, looks at an area, they look not just at that specific area but they look at the surrounding region and what it brings to the table. Whether it's housing, whether it's education, whether it's transportation, whether it's cultural types of programs that people are very interested in,

If you're in Broward you have pretty good access to three airports in a relatively short period of time. I believe when clients, the private sector, look at business opportunities in terms of where do they grow their business, where do they land and how do they evolve, they look at more than just Mecca Farms or Palm Beach County. They look beyond that. They are bright business people. They look at their plans in terms of how do they reach to the proper level of universities that they can get their arms around, with people and talent and education and workforce. It's not just one small slice.

Q. I guess it's easier to see how regionalism works for the large companies. But the majority of companies in South Florida are small businesses. How do they fit into regionalism, how do they get a voice in this?

Pelton: First of all, they fit into a business environment and network. That's where you hope to stimulate your link to the regional economy. You're really trying to open up new markets for small business. They otherwise wouldn't be able to access a market with this much buying power if they were located anywhere else. How do they get a voice? Through our organizations, I hope, through the chambers and through cooperative efforts with all the business organizations in the region.

Tarlton: We have similar programs, too, in terms of visiting clients that are expanding or growing. And we also have small minority business programs in each one of our organizations that focus in on the organic growth, or the evolution of these small businesses they fit in pretty well. In Broward County, a huge percentage of businesses that are here are under $20 million. So we have to pay attention to those to make sure that when they're ready to expand, and want to grow, we can help them to grow not just where they are today, but also the opportunity that is presented to them a little bit farther north and a little farther south.

Nero: The average company in Miami-Dade is less than $20 million, so we understand that completely As there are more people buying goods and services, more people looking to use them as a vendor, or use their store or utilize their services, those small business people can also benefit, whether they're small marketing or advertising firms, or law firms, or accounting firms, there are going to be other opportunities that are going to be there because the regional economy is growing, as opposed to what would happen if we just left it with us fighting among each other. That's not an option for us. I don't think the question is regionalism or not. I think it's we're going to have to participate as a regional area because the alternative is just not acceptable.

BACKGROUND

Regionalism -- defined as getting Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties to work together to solve problems -- could go a long way toward providing solutions in education, transportation and a host of other issues in the three counties making up the South Florida metropolitan statistical area (the sixth largest in the country).

The three counties' economic development agencies are at the forefront of the regionalism bandwagon. Larry Pelton of the Palm Beach County Business Development Board, J.T. Tarlton of the Broward Alliance and Frank Nero of The Beacon Council in Miami-Dade County tell why they think regionalism is good for South Florida.